It is known to use a hand-carried cellular or other type of phone or wireless communicators or radio communication. It is also known to use a portable pager with means for multiple pager messages and a pager display. Typical cellular phones and pagers are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,884,188; 5,933,088; and 5,940,742. Also wearable hands-free computers are known, the most popular being Xybernaut Corporation's Mobile Assistant. This hands-free computer is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,244 (Newman I) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,824 (Newman II), both owned by Xybernaut Corporation. Since phones, pagers and computers have been extensively used, it has become awkward to have to carry each on the person. In addition, wearable computers will be the next generation computer, and it is not a stretch of the imagination to consider that soon every business person will carry one around all day.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,824 (Newman II) there is a clear disclosure of the use of cellular or radio or handwire telephone communication means used with a mobile computer, Claim 6 of Newman II clearly defines this concept. The disclosure of Newman II on specifics of such a combination is incorporated by reference into this disclosure. Also Xybernaut Corporation has several co-pending patent applications Ser. Nos. 08/911,642; 09/009,206 and 09/294,668 which disclose respectively transferable core computer systems, core computer units, and modular wearable computers; each of these applications disclose concepts relevant to the present invention. In Ser. Nos. 08/911,642 and 09/009,206 a mobile core unit is disclosed which has all of the components of a general purpose computer (except for a display). This core unit by itself is non-functional as a computer unless it is in electrical contact with an enclosure, which also supplies functionality. The enclosure has several connector ports for attachment of peripherals to the system. Ser. No. 09/294,668 discloses the concept of computer-containing modules each assembled together to form a conventional computer, except that the computer is body worn and has heat-controlling aspects.
While each of the above patents disclose mobile phones, two-way radios, pagers and computers, the disadvantage is that none of these patents suggest the use of a single easily carried mobile structure which is modular and can provide a telephone function, a computer function, e-mail, personal organizer, facsimile and a pager function.
The prior art problem is that there is no one device that can perform or handle multiple inputs from different sources (e.g. pager, communication device, personal e-mail device, core computer, personal organizer) and, because of that, a user must carry around multiple devices. Prior art small computers in phones do not have the capacity and memory to be affective as a general purpose computer while worn or if removed and used with other higher requirement enclosures. Computer can store a multitude of information without going through a central phone location. Additionally, if a sending party only has the capability to send information in one format (e.g. paper/electronic fax, phone, etc.) and the receiving party does not have the ability to accept (receive) a paper fax, pager, or if the receiving party currently cannot receive electronic faxes because he only has a cell phone or if his laptop is in the backseat of his car and he is driving down the freeway, the receiving party must wait until it is safe to download the fax from a staging area using his or her laptop and cell phone or, in the case of highly sensitive information, the sending party would need to wait before sending the fax until the receiving party can guaranty the safe delivery of the fax.
Currently, when a third party needs to notify or transmit information to another person, this transmission depends on the type of information that needs to be conveyed and the capability of the receiving person to receive this information. The ability of the receiving party to receive this transmission is limited to the device he or she is carrying, i.e. pager or phone, etc. That is, the ability today to communicate information to a given person is limited by not only what capability the receiving person has access to or in their possession but also what the sending party has access to or is in his or her possession. For example, if a person needs to show the receiving party an important fax, the receiving person will most likely need a device that can receive and display that information. This is possible when the receiving party has that capability (usually a cell phone connected to a computer) or when a fax machine is located nearby (in hotel room, office or some other physical location). But what happens when that information needs to be conveyed and all the user has in his or her possession is a pager or a cell phone? The important fax is either read over the cell phone to the intended receiving party or is faxed to a remote location whereby the receiving party can pick it up or the fax is sent to a staging area (typically e-mail or stored on the Internet for later downloading).